- 3,995
- 44
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2004
As long as ND is still on national television every week and playing quality opponents, I don't think the incentives of joining a conference outweigh thecosts. The beef with ND's schedule is that the opponents who they traditionally play, outside of USC, are in down years. Look at a year like 2005, wherethey played the first, third, twentieth, and twenty-fifth ranked teams in the country. How is joining a conference where one or two other teams are rankedbetter than that? They wouldn't get to keep their television contract and any BCS money would be split with the rest of the conference. Not to mention theprestige that is lost. If anything, it's the school's academic standards that are making it difficult for them to compete, not their status as anindependent.